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Friday, June 10, 2011

Mississippi River Basin Water Resource News for the Week

Federal Budget Negotiations Inch Forward

Negotiations led by Vice President Joe Biden continued during a two-hour meeting in the US Capitol on Thursday afternoon, where Congressional Republicans and Democrats discussed taxes and entitlements with White House representatives and Treasury Department officials. The sixth round of talks designed to reach a deal to raise the debt ceiling were reported to have been "constructive and positive," and explored potential new revenue sources that Democrats say will be central to winning their support for any debt ceiling Congressional measure.

With about two to three more weeks of true negotiating time left before a looming August 2 debt ceiling deadline, the White House has said it wants three meetings a week with lawmakers for the remainder of the month to settle upon a deficit-reduction agreement before Congress recesses for a week over the July 4 holiday. That end-of-June target would allow time for President Barack Obama and Congressional GOP leaders, including House Speaker John Boehner to settle on any agreement that the negotiators hammer out, and would leave the remainder of July for Congress to write the complex bill raising the federal debt ceiling.

The Biden bipartisan negotiation sessions are set to resume next Tuesday. Republicans have said they want the deal to include spending cuts equal in size to the increase in the debt limit, and the Treasury Department has indicated that it would need a debt-ceiling increase of at least $2 trillion to allow the Federal government to operate through the end of the next Fiscal Year. A smaller debt-ceiling agreement allowing for a shorter spending time extension also remains a possibility, however, and Republicans are rumored to have signaled that they would agree to $1 trillion in spending cuts.

While the House has begun work on its Fiscal Year 2012 appropriations bills, similar activity on the Senate side has effectively been put on hold, as Senate leaders wait for a resolution of the debt-ceiling issue. The nature of that deal will undoubtedly influence the levels of spending that would be allowed under any Fiscal Year 2012 spending bills.
Notable @UpperMiss Twitter Postings for the Week: